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Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff

By Matt Byrne, Town Correspondent

In the latest chapter of the ongoing dispute between users of the
Middlesex Fellsway Reservation, the State Department of Conservation
and Recreation has indicated that an upcoming draft plan for trail
usage will focus on enforcement of existing rules at the Fells,
education, trail closures, resource protection, and improving
recreational experience for existing users, the agency said in a letter
to the Boston Sierra Club.

The trail
system plan will not call for an expansion of the trail system,
construction of new trails or the expansion of parking at the Fells,
according to a copy of the letter provided by the Sierra Club, dated
Sept. 2.

The DCR said that it will advance a plan to perform a broader, more
rigorous study of the Fells, but it will not halt progress of the trail
plan. Some groups are seeking to curtail
use of the trails by area mountain bikers, and to protect what they say
is uique biological diversity at the site.

The letter contains the most details yet about agency’s trail plan,
which has been kept under wraps. The draft report will be unveiled at a
Sept.
20 public meeting. The trail system has been sorely fought over
by interest groups who seek to influence rules permitting who can use
the trails for activities like mountain biking or dog-walking.

Since
the agency asked the public for input about the trails nine months ago,
mountain bikers and hikers have disagreed vocally about how much access
citizens riding on two wheels should have to the network of paths
traditionally used by people on foot. More than 500 comments were
submitted to the DCR, according to the letter, which was signed by DCR
Commissioner Richard K. Sullivan and was addressed to the head of the
Boston Sierra Club.

Currently only certain sections of the park, totaling about 40 miles of
trail, permit bike riding, a fact decried by the New England Mountain
Biking Association, the members of which are regular users of the
trails. The bikers argue that the current system is unfair and does not
provide the equal access found at many other parks.

The Friends of The Fells, a local preservationist group, says that
increased cycle access could be dangerous to hikers, endanger rare
animal and plant life, and may potentially harm the ecosystem there.

“The DCR is playing very close to the vest, and our concern is that
most organizations like Boy Scouts or bird clubs, that they have no
idea what is going on here,” said Mike Ryan, executive director of The
Friends of the Fells, in a telephone interview. “This is a very well
organized effort by one interest group. So if they give the bikers new
trails, it will just be granting wider access, because bikers never
stay on the trails.”

Adam Glick, president of the Boston NEMBA chapter, denied widespread
abuse by bicyclists, and said Friends of the Fells is attempting to
bully the DCR into rebuffing their request for equal treatment.

“The Friends of The Fells has essentially turned it into their private
park,” Glick said. “We want to bring the Fells into line with other
state parks” where bikers and hikers have similar or equal access to
public trails.

The meeting to unveil the draft, to be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in
the McGlynn School Auditorium located at 3002 Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford,
will be the public’s first look at the draft.

In a statement announcing the meeting, DCR commissioner Richard K.
Sullivan Jr. said the Fells is an extraordinary urban resource that
offers a number of recreational opportunities and requires attention.

“But it also needs, and deserves, to be protected and managed to ensure its long-term sustainability,” Sullivan said.

A 60-day period of public comment will follow Sept. 20’s meeting, the DCR said.

The recent letter was a response to a May inquiry signed by the Sierra
Club and a handful of other environmental advocacy groups imploring the
agency to consider the wider effects of making changes to the
reservation before it can be fully studied.

In the letter, the Sierra Club called on the DCR to go through the
formal process to examine the Fells and its features, a legally defined
process that culminates in a master document called a resource
management plan.

“… We are troubled by what appears to be a planning process primarily
driven by proposed expansion of trails and uses; we believe this is too
narrow an approach given the concentration of both the range of
recreational demands and the diverse natural, historical and cultural
resources at the Fells,” the Sierra Club wrote.

At the Sept. 20 meeting, DCR staff members are expected to present an
overview of the plan’s contents and recommendations, the DCR said.